Bobby Wilder might be in his first year atop the Tennessee Tech program, but he's a veteran coach with a proven track record of lifting up programs.
His work on the inaugural Old Dominion football launch remains a steadfast example, much like that of Bobby Lamb at Mercer more than a decade ago, of lifting a program up off the ground from the very outset.
So when Wilder unloaded Tuesday on the weekly Big South/Ohio Valley Conference coaches' Zoom, his words were worth hearing.
And, with nothing left to nuance, Wilder put league officials on absolute blast for their scheduling model.
Tennessee Tech has won two of its four league games but sits just 2-5 overall after narrowly missing a monumental upset in the team's opening game at FBS program Middle Tennessee State, 35-32, and then losing 48-3 at then-top ranked Georgia.
In a season that kicked off in August, the Golden Eagles are preparing for just their third home game Saturday when Charleston Southern visits.
"The first thing I'm going to do, because I'm pissed off right now, is address the scheduling model this league has, the scheduling model at Tech," Wilder said on the Zoom.
"This is absolutely horrendous. We're a 2-5 football team right now. We're beat up, lost our starting quarterback, and I inherited this when I got here. So, first two games, FBS; we play at Middle Tennessee, play at Georgia, who's No. 1 in the nation (at that time), get a bunch of kids hurt. Then we come home and play Tennessee State when we're still fairly healthy, even with a backup quarterback, and beat them.
"That's their only league loss, 6-2 and 3-1 right now. Then the league sends us on the road three consecutive times in the league on the road. I don't understand how that's even possible, and we've got to put up with it. So now we're sitting here at 2-5, we're all beat up; thankfully we just our quarterback back."
Wilder was adamant that his stance has not been formed just based off the plight of his program, which welcomed in approximately half of its roster in the former of NCAA Transfer Portal additions as well as high school signees. He worried that the nine-team alliance would remain a "one-bid" entity in the FCS Playoffs for the foreseeable future with this approach.
Tennessee Tech hasn't had a winning season in 13 years.
"In the big picture, the league has to change this or we're going to be a one-bid league," Wilder fumed. "We've got nine teams in the league, five of us play seven away games, five home. Only four teams play six and six, which is unacceptable. All four teams who played two FBS money games all have losing records.
"Western (Illinois), us, Gardner-Webb and Eastern Illinois, who went into the league preseason No. 2 into the year. Got the crap beat out of them, now they're sitting there at 0-3, 1-6. This whole model has to change. There's a couple of teams that have a tremendous model. I give Tennessee State credit, they did a great job, didn't play any Power 5 teams, they were 3-1 non-league. I'll give Tuke credit out at SeMo, who I happened to notice their A.D. was in the meetings back in January. Phenomenal job by them. They play Week Zero, they play three games, bye, six games, bye in November. They're clearly the top team in the league now. Smart scheduling. They play a 2-5 New Mexico State as their money game, where we go to Georgia and get the crap kicked out of us for money."
Wilder was not finished.
"I'm pissed about it. This bothers me. This is going to stay a one-bid league until leadership decides to make some changes," he said. "Because you look at the Missouri Valley, there will be probably six teams in; you look at the Big Sky, there will be probably four teams in. They have a smart model, they do it right, more home than away, they buy teams (for games) to come in to help with the schedule.
"We need to fix that at Tennessee Tech, which we're going to. I've talked to the president (Phil Oldham) and the A.D. (Mark Wilson); we're going to fix that because it bothers me. We're sitting here with a good team right now that's 2-5 having played five of our first seven on the road and three of our first four in the league on the road."
Wilder, who noted Charleston Southern also must still visit Florida State, a team that's faltered but opened the season ranked No. 10, emphasized the diversity in his team's box score wasn't planned but rather mandated by physical setbacks.
"No, it's not a goal," Wilder said when asked about having 11 different pass-catchers in last week's loss at Western Illinois. "We're just playing a lot of people out of necessity because we're so banged up right now."
See Wilder's impassioned comments below: